underneath. A gorgeous golden gown.
It was Lucinda, fully costumed as Anne Boleyn and about to go onstage.
Luce edged out of the wardrobe. She felt nervous and tongue-tied but also oddly empowered: If what Bill had told her was true, there wasn't a lot of time left.
Bill? she whispered. I need you to do that thing where you press Pause so I can--
"Shhhh!" Bill's hiss had a finality that said Luce was on her own. She would just have to wait until this man left so she could get Lucinda alone.
Unexpectedly, Lucinda moved toward the wardrobe where Luce was hiding. Lucinda reached inside. Her hand moved toward the golden cloak right next to Luce's shoulder. Luce held her breath, reached up, clasped her fingers with Lucinda's.
Lucinda gasped and threw the door wide, staring deep into Luce's eyes, teetering on the edge of some inexplicable understanding. The floor beneath them seemed to tilt. Luce grew dizzy, closing her eyes and feeling as if her soul had dropped out of her body. She saw herself from the outside: her strange dress that Bill had altered on the fly, the raw fear in her eyes. The hand in hers was soft, so soft she could barely feel it.
She blinked and Lucinda blinked and then Luce didn't feel any hand at all. When she looked down, her hand was empty. She'd become the girl she'd been holding on to. Quickly, she grabbed the cloak and settled it over her shoulders.
The only other person in the tiring-room was the man who'd been whispering to Lucinda. Luce knew then that he was William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare. She knew him. They were, the three of them--Lucinda, Daniel, and Shakespeare--friends. There had been a summer afternoon when Daniel had taken Lucinda to visit Shakespeare at his home in Stratford. Toward sunset, they'd sat in the library, and while Daniel worked on his sketches at the window, Will had asked her question after question--all the while taking furious notes--about when she'd first met Daniel, how she felt about him, whether she thought she could one day fall in love.
Aside from Daniel, Shakespeare was the only one who knew the secret of Lucinda's identity--her gender--and the love the players shared offstage. In exchange for his discretion, Lucinda was keeping the secret that Shakespeare was present that night at the Globe. Everyone else in the company assumed that he was in Stratford, that he'd handed over the reins of the theater to Master Fletcher. Instead, Will appeared incognito to see the play's opening night.
When she returned to his side, Shakespeare gazed deep into Lucinda's eyes. You've changed.
I--no, I'm still--she felt the soft brocade around her shoulders. Yes, I found the cloak.
The cloak, is it? He smiled at her, winked. It suits you.
Then Shakespeare put his hand on Lucinda's shoulder, the way he always did when he was giving directorial instructions: Hear this: Everyone here already knows your story. They'll see you in this scene, and you won't say or do very much. But Anne Boleyn is a rising star in the court. Every one of them has a stake in your destiny. He swallowed. As well: Don't forget to hit the mark at the end of your line. You need to be downstage left for the start of the dance.
Luce could feel her lines in the play run across her mind. The words would be there when she needed them, when she stepped onstage in front of all these people. She was ready.
The audience roared and applauded again. A rush of actors exited the stage and filled the space around her. Shakespeare had already slipped away. She could see Daniel on the opposite wing of the stage. He towered over the other actors, regal and impossibly gorgeous.
It was her cue to walk onstage. This was the start of the party scene at Lord Wolsey's estate, where the king--Daniel--would perform an elaborate masque before taking Anne Boleyn's hand for the first time. They were supposed to dance and fall heavily in love. It was supposed to be the very beginning of a romance that changed everything.
The beginning.
But for Daniel, it wasn't the beginning at all.
For Lucinda, however, and for the character she was playing--it was love at first sight. Laying eyes on Daniel had felt like the first real thing ever to happen to Lucinda, just as it had felt for Luce at Sword & Cross. Her whole world had suddenly meant something in a way it never had before.
Luce could not believe